Skrivánci na niti (1990)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Jirí Menzel

Writers:

Bohumil Hrabal (novel)
Jirí Menzel (writer)

Release Date:

February 1990 (Czechoslovakia)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Plot:

Set in the late 1940s, the film concerns the treatment of suspect "bourgeois elements", a professor, a saxophonist, and a milkman, who are put to work in a junkyard for rehabilitation.

Plot Keywords:

Scrapyard | Male Female Relationship | Marriage | Satire | Political Prisoner

Awards:

3 wins

Cast

Rudolf Hrusínský	...	Trustee
Vlastimil Brodský	...	Professor
Václav Neckár	...	Pavel Hvezdár
Jitka Zelenohorská	...	Jitka
Jaroslav Satoranský	...	Guard Andel
Vladimír Smeral	...	Minister
Ferdinand Kruta	...	Kudla
Frantisek Rehák	...	Drobecek
Leos Sucharípa	...	Public prosecutor
Vladimír Ptácek	...	Mlíkar
Eugen Jegorov	...	Saxophonist (as Evzen Jegorov)
Nada Urbánková	...	Lenka
Vera Kresadlová	...	Convict
Vera Ferbasová	...	Convict
Jirina Stepnicková	...	Pavel's mother

Also Known As:

Larks on a String
Larks on a Thread
Skylarks on a String
Allodole sul filo (Italy) [it]
Alondras en el alambre (Spain) [es]
Alondras en un hilo (Argentina) (video title) [es]
Alouettes, le fil à la patte (France) [fr]
Kuin leivoset langalla (Finland) [fi]
Leeuweriken aan een draadje (Netherlands) [nl]
Pacsirták cérnaszálon (Hungary) [hu]
Skowronki na uwiezi (Poland) [pl]

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

Czechoslovakia

Language:

Czech

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

South Korea:15 | Argentina:13 | Chile:14 | Finland:S

Filming Locations:

Kladno, Czech Republic

Company:

Filmové Studio Barrandov

Trivia:

Filmed in 1969, the film was withheld by the censors and released only in 1990 after the fall of the Communist regime.

Movie Connections:

References Monsieur Verdoux (1947)

Erotically Charged Comedy

Set in a scrap metal yard at the great Kladno steelworks, at the time of its making (just as the Prague Spring was being terminated by the Russians) this was seen as a satirical attack on the Communist regime, which got both film and director Jiří Menzel banned for several years (the film was not released until 1990). How such a gentle film could be seen as so subversive now seems incredible nearly 4 decades later.

Sorry, Liehtzu, but it couldn't possibly be better than the sublime "Closely Observed Trains"! Maybe this is because that film is so timeless, whereas "Larks on a String" seems to have dated less well; it is now more of a series of formless sketches of erotically charged comedy, in which the Czech spirit always manages to triumph over oppression and even the "villains" elicit a certain sympathy.

Even so it is a gem of a film, witty, quirky and subtle, in which a bunch of renegade intellectuals, sent literally to the scrapheap, put the world to rights and try to engage with the pretty girls working over the metal mountain.

The DVD available in the Czech Republic (R2) has rather unreliable English subtitles, so much of the biting dialogue is lost in translation; still a wonderful film though.